widow, to whom he had been married in 1554, and several children, one of whom, Giles, was in after-life fellow of St. John's, (or Trinity, according to other authorities,) and celebrated, like his father, for the elegance of his Latin epistles. Ascham's greatest work, "The Scholemaster," was not published until after his death. The occasion of its composition is told in the beginning of the book. After a conversation among a number of eminent men, Sir William Cecil at their head, on the merits of severity and its opposite in school discipline, in which Ascham warmly attacked the former, Sir Richard Sackville took him aside, and avowing that his own education had been marred by the severity of his tutor, proposed that Ascham should draw up a plan of instruction, and recommend a person under whom it could be put in practice, having for his scholars Sir Richard's grandson, and Ascham's eldest boy, Giles. Ascham set about his task with delight; but the death of Sir Richard in 1566, before it was completed, put an end to the proposed scheme, and caused the author to finish his work with a sorrow and heaviness in sad contrast to the high hopes with which he entered upon it. He left the book completed for the press, when he died, and it was published by his widow, with a dedication to Sir William Cecil, and with a view, not altogether disappointed, of attracting his attention in behalf of her son Giles to whom it was thus, after all, of some benefit, although in a far different manner from what the author could have anticipated. The principal object of the work besides the reprehension of severity on of teachers and parents, is the introduction of a new system of teaching the Latin language, a system which has been partially revived of late years. Ascham proposes, after teaching the rudiments of grammar, to commence a course of double translation, first from Latin into English, and shortly after from English into Latin, correcting the mistakes of the student, and leading to the formation. of a classic style, by pointing out the differences between the re-translation and the original, and explaining their reasons. His whole system is built upon this principle of dispensing as much as possible with the details of grammar, and he supports his theory by a triumphant reference to its practical effects, especially as displayed in the case of Queen Elizabeth, whose well-known proficiency in Latin he declares to have been attained without any grammatical rules after the very simplest had been mastered.

the

part

The excellence of Ascham's epistolary style has been referred to. He was in correspondence with most of the learned men of his time, both in England and on the continent, especially with Sturmius, whose name he gave to one of his three sons. After his death, a collection,

of his Latin letters was published by his friend Edward Grant, master of Westminster School, together with a few poems, for the benefit of Giles Ascham, who was then under Grant's tuition. To this collection was prefixed a panegyric on Ascham, which is the principal source for his life, though his letters, and numerous allusions scattered through his works, contribute to a knowledge of his personal history.

A writer in the Retrospective Review, (Vol. iv. p. 76,) in an interesting notice of Toxophilus remarks: "Ascham is a great name in our national literature. He was one of the founders of a true English style in prose composition, and one of the most respectable and useful of our scholars. He was amongst the first to reject the use of foreign words and idioms, a fashion, which in the reign of Henry the VIII., began to be so prevalent, that the authors of that day, by "using straunge wordes, as Latine, Frenche, and Italian, did make all thinges darke and harde." It required some virtue moreover in Ascham, attached as he was to the study of the learned languages, to abstain from mingling them with his English compositions, especially when the public taste countenanced such innovations. But Ascham's mind

was too patriotic to permit him to think, that his native tongue could be improved by this admixture of foreign phrases, an opinion which he illustrates by this comparison;-" but if you put malvesye and sacke, redde wyne and white, ale and beere, and all in one pot, you shall make a drincke not easye to be known nor yet holsome for the bodye." In obedience to the precept of Aristotle,-to think like the wise, but to speak like the common people; Ascham set a successful example of a simple and pure taste in writing, and we question whether we do not owe more to him on this account, than even for the zeal which he displayed in the cultivation of the Greek, language, during its infancy amongst us."

Ascham's character is well summed up in a passage of his life by Mr. Hartley Coleridge: "There was a primitive honesty, a kindly innocence, about this good old scholar, which gave a personal interest to the homeliest details of his life. He had the rare felicity of passing through the worst of times without persecution and without dishonor. He lived with princes and princesses, prelates and diplomatists, without offence and without ambition. Though he enjoyed the smiles of royalty, his heart was none the worse, and his fortunes little the better."

ROGER ASCHAM AND THE LADY JANE GREY.

[From Walter Savage Landor's "Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen." Volume II., p. 79-84.]

ASCHAM.-Thou art going, my dear young lady, into a most awful state; thou art passing into matrimony and great wealth. God hath willed it so: submit in thankfulness.

Thy affections are rightly placed and well distributed. Love is a secondary passion in those who love most, a primary in those who love least. He who is inspired by it in a great degree, is inspired by honor in a greater: it never reaches its plentitude of growth and perfection, but in the most exalted minds. Alas! alas!

JANE.-What aileth my virtuous Ascham? what is amiss? why do I tremble? ASCHAM.-I remember a sort of prophecy, made three years ago: it is a prophecy of thy condition and of my feelings on it. Recollectest thou who wrote, sitting upon the seabeach, the evening after an excursion to the Isle of Wight, these verses?

Invisibly bright water! so like air,

On looking down I feared thou couldst not bear
My little bark, of all light barks most light,

And looked again . . . and drew me from the sight,

And, hanging back, breathed each fresh gale aghast,

And held the bench, not to go on so fast.

JANE.-I was very childish when I composed them; and, if I had thought any more about the matter, I should have hoped you had been too generous to keep them in your memory, as witnesses against me.

ASCHAM.-Nay, they are not much amiss for so young a girl, and there being so few of them, I did not reprove thee. Half an hour, I then thought, might have been spent more unprofitably; and I now shall believe it firmly, and if thou wilt but be led by them to meditate a little, on the similarity of situation in which thou then wert to what thou art now in.

JANE-I will do it, and whatever else you command me; for I am too weak by nature and very timorous, unless where a strong sense of duty holdeth me and supporteth me: there God acteth, and not his creature.

Those were with me at sea who would have been attentive to me, if I had seemed to be afraid, even the worshipful men and women were in the compa ny; so that something more powerful threw my fear overboard: but I never go again upon the water.

will

ASCHAM.-Exercise that beauteous couple, that mind and body, much and variously, but at home, at home, Jane! indoors, and about things indoors; for God is there too. We have rocks and quicksands on the banks of our Thames, O lady, such as ocean never heard of; and many, (who knows how soon!) may engulphed in the smooth current under their garden walls.

be

JANE.-Thoroughly do I now understand you. Yes indeed, I have read evil things of courts; but I think nobody can go out bad thence who entereth good, if timely and true warning shall have been kindly and freely given.

ASCHAM.-I see perils on perils which thou dost not see, although thou art wiser than thy poor old master. And it is not because love hath blinded thee,

for that surpasseth his supposed omnipotence; but it is because thy tender heart, having always lent affectionately upon good, hath felt and known nothing of evil.

I once persuaded thee to reflect much: let me now persuade thee to avoid the habitude of reflection, to lay aside books, and to gaze carefully and stedfastly on what is under and before thee.

JANE. I have well bethought me of all my duties: O how extensive they are! what a goodly and fair inheritance! But tell me, wouldst thou command me never more to read Cicero and Epictetus and Polybius? the others I do resign unto thee: they are good for the arbor and for the gravel walk: but leave unto me, I beseech thee, my friend and father, leave unto me, for my fireside and for my pillow, truth, eloquence, courage and constancy.

ASCHAM.-Read them on thy marriagebed, on thy childbed, on thy deathbed! Thou spotless undrooping lily, they have fenced thee right well! These are the men for men: these are to fashion the bright and blessed creatures, O Jane, whom God one day shall smile upon in thy chaste bosom. . . Mind thou thy husband.

JANE. I sincerely love the youth who hath espoused me; I love him with the fondest, the most solicitous affection. I pray to the Almighty for his goodness and happiness, and do forget at times, unworthy supplicant! the prayers I should have offered for myself. O never fear that I will disparage my kind religious teacher, by disobedience to my husband, in the most trying duties.

ASCHAM.-Gentle is he, gentle and virtuous: but time will harden him: time must harden even thee, sweet Jane! Do thou, complacently and indirectly, lead him from ambition.

JANE. He is contented with me and with home.

ASCHAM.-Ah Jane, Jane! men of high estate grow tired of contentedness. JANE. He told me he never liked books unless I read them to him. I will read them to him every evening: I will open new worlds to him, richer than those discovered by the Spaniard; I will conduct him to treasures . . . O what treasures! . . . on which he may sleep in innocence and peace.

ASCHAM.-Rather do thou walk with him, ride with him, play with him, be his faery, his page, his everything that love and poetry have invented: but watch him well, sport with his fancies; turn them about like the ringlets round his checks; and if ever he meditate on power, go, toss up thy baby to his brow, and bring back his thoughts into his heart by the music of thy discourse.

Teach him to live unto God and unto thee: and he will discover that women, like the plants in woods, derive their softness and tenderness from the shade.

IV. TOXOPHILUS; THE SCHOLE OF SHOOTINGE.*

BY ROGER ASCHAM, WRITTEN IN 1554.

BEFORE introducing to our readers "the Schole Master" of Queen Elizabeth, or "the plaine and perfite way" in which Roger Ascham led his royal pupil up the sublime heights of ancient learning, we will devote a few pages to a brief notice and a few specimens of his Toxophilus.

TOXOPHILUS was written in 1554, during Ascham's residence at the University of Cambridge, and seems, in addition to other ends, to have been intended as an apology for the zeal with which he studied and practiced the ancient, but now forgotten art of archery as a means of recreation. His great attachment to the exercise, and the time spent upon it were considered unbecoming the character of a grave scholar and teacher. From this imputation, he endeavors in the character of Toxophilus, (a lover of archery,) to free himself, by showing in a dialogue with Philolo gus, (a student,) the honor and dignity of the art, in all nations and in all times. He asserts truly that much of the success of English arms at Cressy, Poictiers, Agincourt, and Flodden, was due to their strength of arm and accuracy of eye, with which the bold yeomen of England "drew their arrows to the head," and discharged the "iron sleet" against their discomfited enemies. To realize the part which the practice of archery played in the pastimes of peace, we have only to recall its frequent introduction into the rural poetry of England, and the traditionary stories of the Strongbows and Robin Hoods of ancient days. It was the national practice of shooting for pleasure or prizes, by which every man was inured to archery from his infancy, that gave the English yeomen an insuperable advantage in the use of the bow over all foreign troops, and made them formidable even to foes armed with the clumsy muskets of the times of Queen Elizabeth. We do not propose to set forth Ascham's encomiums on the utility of archery in matters of war, or the minute practical details which he gives for choosing and using the bow, even to the species of goose, from the wing of which the best feathers are to be plucked for the shaft, but to present his views of the fitness and utility of manly sports, and recreating amusements for those who lead a sedentary life. A writer in the Retrospective Review, (Vol. IV., p. 79,) in commenting on this work of Ascham justly observes:

*The following is the title in Bennett's Edition of Roger Ascham's Works:

TOXOPHILUS: The Schole, or Partitions of Shooting. Contayned in II Bookes. Writ ten by ROGER ASCHAM, 1554. And now newly perused. Pleasant for all Gentlemen and Yomen of Englande. For theyr pastime to reade, and profitable for theyr use to followe in warre and peace. Anno, 1571. Imprinted at LONDON, in Fletestreate, near to Saint Dunstones Churche by Thomas Marshe.